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A September Without Push Ads, The Wanted.. and the Holy Grail!

IN YOUR FACE!

I was out doing the weekly grocery shopping at the local Tesco outlet, when this lady walked by, and she had this black t-shirt on with the wordings "The Wanted" on it. Really huge.... words, seriously, the wording just shouted out at me.

And guess what came to my mind? Notification Ad! LOL!

The "ad" of the band popped up, when I was least expecting it, and while I was not watching the TV or listening to the Radio! Awesome eh? Long live notification ads!!!

No More Aggresive Ads

I removed Leadbolt and Airpush notification and icon ads from my Google Play apps in mid-August. Up till now, I am not confident in Google's stand on the issue of these ad formats, so I am staying away from them for now, even though there have not been any concrete evidence of apps getting suspended due to these ads.

Airpush did have ads going around with the title "New Message", which could have landed developers into much unwanted trouble. Looks like they have cleared that out.

I think ad networks need to be extra careful on their side too on how the ads are going. Developer accounts could be at stake here.

Holy Grail... Your Mileage Might Vary

Many new developers often come to blogs where other developers share their experiences. It is good, I too often visit other developer blogs and forums. But, guys, and gals, what one person gets for his / her apps does not in any way guarantee what you will get in yours. What I would suggest is that you try out stuff on your apps.

How ads work from one app to another very often differs. You can have 2 exactly same apps, and yet, the performance of the ads will differ. Promotion of the apps for example. If one app is downloaded more in Mozambique, you're sure the returns are gonna be lower.

Really, just do your tests, and see what works best for you and your app.

Also do note that some ads would be useless in certain stores.

For example, AppLovin ads are almost 100% likely to be Google Play linked apps. Now if you publish your apps on other markets like SlideMe or GetJar, do remember that these markets are mainly accessed by devices that don't have the Google Play market built in. Your ads are basically gonna go to waste, especially if you're using a CPA type ad network. The same if you're using AppBrain, and I think Leadbolt too.

Go for the CPC types instead for these markets. Admob has many ads that are not app related, and when clicked, brings the user to a web page.

Also, this is one reason why Airpush ads work in almost any markets. They have many ads that are linked to web pages, or downloads that are not on Google Play. You may consider using them on these alternative app stores.

Allright then... Hope you had a productive September, and an even better October. May Justin Beiber pop up IN YOUR FACE!

Well, while I don't know what goes on inside Leadbolt, there are a few possibilities on what's going on with them (my opinions only):

1 - They ARE losing advertisers - Revenues been reported going down by many developers over the past months

2 - They ARE NOT losing developers. I am basing this on the number of referrals that are still joining Leadbolt from my referral link. Not a good conclusion, but still a rough picture I'd say.

3 - If my point 1 above is wrong, then they are having low quality advertisers as reflected by the lowering revenues.

4 - My referral revenues keep going down, which ultimately means that even though there are more developers signing up, they are not making money. And those that are making money, I am guessing they are getting lower revenues too.

5 - If point 4 above is wrong, then the low quality advertisers (point 3) is true as it means Leadbolt is making lesser money from the advertisers, which impacts my referral revenues, and other developer's revenues too.

6 - I am not leaving Leadbolt totally. And I believe this the same with other developers too. I am only avoiding icon and notification ads due to Google's policy. I am instead looking at integrating the non-sdk html offer walls in my apps, to see how it really performs.

Ouch! Did not notice that! Thanks for highlighting it. Looks like Leadbolt is running low on revenues then eh? Since they are now giving developers a lower cut of it? OR, they have too many developers now perhaps?

Really wish they would have informed developers about it.

Well, notification and icon ads are fine from my understanding too, but I'm just waiting for more solid conclusion on Google's lack of proper explanation.

I guess, like I've mentioned in the post, no 2 people are gonna get the same performance. I get horrible performance from icon and offer walls, but was awesome with notification ads.

Actually Google policy is very clear about Notifications & Icons. You only need user consent with an EULA.

"Ads must not make changes to the functioning of the user’s device outside the ad by doing things such as installing shortcuts, bookmarks or icons or changing default settings without the user’s knowledge and consent."

About Leadbolt, they have way many developer then before now, problem is advertisers are not enough now.

Hi guys, I removed AirPush and Leadbolt from all my apps last month. After that, I published new app on my own website. Because I didn't publish it on Google Play so I use all ad network I know including AirPush & SendDroid. I think my app is very interesting so the users didn't uninstall it. They also can't give me bad review too :D

Now I conclude that if my app is good enough, the users will don't mind about what ads they have to see.

Hi Bill,I used bit.ly shorten link to monitor the number of download. It got 30.000 downloads for 1 month. I guess if I published on Google Play the number could 5x bigger. However I'm happy with it now.

When releasing a new app, it is understood that it will rank far down the food chain. After all, your app is new and unproven just yet.

What Google has done on the Play store is that they have given new app an opportunity to live, a chance to get to a more respectable place in the world of the unknown, the Google Play ranking algorithm.

Good looks go a long way in getting downloads for your apps. I'm a fan of looking out for beautiful app designs. I've looked at so many apps, gotten so much inspiration, but have yet to achieve anything that I can be proud of.

Blame genetics if you must. I am a developer, and although I play the guitar and love music and beautiful art and images (even tried photography once), I suck in the design area. I can give an idea, a design, but cant execute it. I'm a coder damnit!